The United
Citizens' Action Network

Stop the Beheadings!

Although
I have not watch the gruesome video of the murder of
the Americans and other westerners by what has come
to called Islamic fundamentalist, I have seen the
pictures of the poor victims and their captors, and
my blood has boiled. It is perhaps a very good thing
that I am not the one with the authority and power
to decide what this nation is going to do about it,
for if I were my first gut reaction would be to
announce that we would retaliate at a ratio of 7000
to one. If you kill an American we will kill 7000 of
you. If our Joint Chiefs or our so‑called Muslim
allies could present an alternate plan which would
assure that the murders would stop we would consider
it, but otherwise we would have bombers in the air
the day of the murders.

Now
this may not be the right response, but it
may be effective.

The question is really are we at war. More
than one of the talking heads on television,
be they politicians, expert analyst or what
have you, have made comparisons to our
actions in Iraq and Afghanistan to our
actions in World War II. They point to our
record of wining a war and then building
democracy. But have these actions since
September 11, 2001 been a real war? The
answer is no. They perhaps are best
described as police actions. What is the
difference? Well on December 7, 1941 the
United States did not launch an
investigation into who the Japanese pilots
were who dropped the bombs and torpedoes on
Pearl Harbor. They declared war on Japan and
all the nations allied with it. And it was
near unconditional

By the time we dropped atomic bombs
on two Japanese cities, Germany and
Japan were in utter ruins. All their
major cities were bombed out rubble,
their armies and navies had been
wiped out and many of the citizens
had been killed. That was war.

After the war those nations were
rebuilt with the hard work and
resources of the American people.
That was the right thing to do, but
it could not have been done had our
former enemies not been totally
defeated first.

If we are to succeed in our present
endeavor at national security, we
must first recognize who our enemy
is. We have defeated the Taliban.
The Saddam Hussein regime is no
more. Many al-Qaida leaders have
been killed or captured. But these
are only parts of our the entity
which is our true enemy. Defeating
them would be like sinking a
Japanese battleship or capturing a
German army division in World War
II.

In this nation, and in this culture,
we hold freedom of religion as one
of our dearest rights. It is
altogether fitting and right that we
do this, but if a group has as its
purpose to not only take away that
right but to also utterly destroy
us, then it behooves us to recognize
that group is our enemy, even if
that group calls itself a religion.
On Sept. 11, 2001 they danced in the
street for joy in Egypt when they
heard that thousands of Americans
had been killed. This in an Islamic
country which is called moderate,
and is supposed to be our friend.
Almost all for the murdering
hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis,
another Islamic country that is
supposed to be our ally. If Islam is
not our enemy, let their leaders
announce it. Let them renounce
terrorism. Let them stop protecting
and facilitating murders. Let them
stop preaching hate and violence.

Until they do this, and I
donít believe they will, we
must recognize that Islam
itself is our enemy. Thought
out history Islam has done
its proselyting by the
sword. It does not seem to
have changed its ways.

This editorial does not
necessarily reflect the
views of Views & News. If
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